THE parent company behind a £12 million pastry products factory in Norton has flown the flag for UK food and drink as part of a trade trip to China.

The trip with Environment Secretary Elizabeth Truss pursued new opportunities for UK producers to sell to Chinese consumers, giving companies like Hull-based Cranswick Country Foods greater access to China’s specialist food market; expected to be worth £39 billion this year.

Cranswick, which owns Yorkshire Baker, near Malton, is already the biggest exporter of pork from the UK, producing around 500 tonnes of pork per week.

The company, based in Hull, currently exports £24 million of pork products to China every year and has set its sights on the country’s growing market for top-quality UK processed pork.

Businesses across Yorkshire are now growing thanks to increased trade with countries like China, boosting local economies and creating new jobs. Cranswick employs almost 8,000 people across 13 UK production facilities, and sources around 70 per cent of its contracted pigs within Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and Norfolk.

Nick Mitchell, trading director at Cranswick, said: "Cranswick is the biggest exporter of pork from the UK, so it’s great to see the Secretary of State promoting quality British pork around the world.

"For us, the visit is an opportunity to strengthen our business in China even further, but also to push for the market to be opened up even more to allow us to export pigs’ trotters, which we think could potentially bring in further financial benefits to be shared with the rest of the UK’s pig producers."